Sunday, June 01, 2014

Some problematic Sexton Blakes

I've been posting some bibliographic puzzles here on Pulpetti for some time now. I'm finally getting my book on British crime paperbackers to print (hopefully at the end of the next week), but there are still some things I'd like to be more sure of. I have several Sexton Blakes translated in Finnish in the early sixties for which I haven't been able to find the original publishing info, as I don't have an access to original English stories.

Here's a lowdown, with the Finnish titles translated literally back to English (but do note that the English titles don't match any known Sexton Blake stories):

Edwin Harrison: "The Green Spider" (published in 1963): someone is coming to meet Sexton Blake at his office, but is hit by a car just in front of Blake's building and gets killed.
Edwin Harrison: "Spanish Blood" (1963): a matador is poisoned by syanide.
Anonymous (only Sexton Blake published in Finnish without the author's name): "The Disappeared Author" (1963): the promising writer of a great book gets lost.
Desmond Reid (a house name): "The Avenger from Dartmoor" (1962): the authorities let a a prisoner escape so that he can revenge and take out his former allies who let him down
Desmond Reid: "The Woman Is Dangerous" (1962): takes place in fictional state of Costa Barria, features also Huxton Rymer, but is still clearly from the post-WWII era
Desmond Reid: "The Trumper Killer": a jazz player makes extra money killing people
Desmond Reid: "The Angel of Death": an early story on animal rights movement, some young people are fleeing the circus animals
Jack Trevor Story: "Gold Means Death": Splash Kirby looks into the world of Italian immigrants and is kidnapped and taken to Italy
Jack Trevor Story: "Death Before One's Eyes": now, this is interesting: Blake is a first person narrator (the only time in the history of Sexton Blake?) and is approached by a former lover who asks Blake look into a mystery
Jack Trevor Story: "Love Under the Gallows": Sexton Blake vs. the teenage gangs

And also, is Jack Trevor Story's Invitation to Murder about someone killing models?


klo

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:51 PM

    Juri, I'm sure I could identify all these books for you, but to sort through them would take time that I'm sorry to say I don't have at present. Perhaps someone who has been reading their SBLs recently could help? The Edwin Harrisons should be easy -- he wrote only occasionally for the SBL. From memory alone, of the Desmond Reids, The Woman is Dangerous would be State of Fear (originally by G. H. Teed), while The Trumpet Killer could be Vic Hanson's Death on a High Note. Jack Trevor Story's first-person story would be Danger's Child and the teenage gangs story possibly Nine O'Clock Shadow.

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  2. jurinummelin9:20 AM

    Enormous thanks for this, Keith! I'll do some double-checking on them and see if I can find some more info on the stories you mention. Steve Holland verifies the Hanson and Teed connections elsewhere.

    There's just this problem: I'd already declared there have been no translations from Vic Hanson.

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